


Watchful

by TheDarkFlygon



Series: Autumn Fever (Whumptober 2020) [2]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Black 2 & White 2 | Pokemon Black 2 & White 2 Versions
Genre: Coughing, Discovery, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Interspecies Friendship, POV Third Person Limited, Personal Canon, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-11
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:08:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26956354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDarkFlygon/pseuds/TheDarkFlygon
Summary: Gardevoirs don't cough, so Magdalene gets curious.
Series: Autumn Fever (Whumptober 2020) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1966432
Kudos: 2





	Watchful

**Author's Note:**

> The second prompt on the alt list was "Cough", so I wrote a little something, very simple stuff.
> 
> It's always cool to write in Magdalene's POV because she isn't human, so she doesn't see the world the same way we do. It results in what must be weird as fuck for newcomers/outsiders, but I honestly didn't write it to be beginner-friendly.  
> In case you're here to know more about my personal Pokémon canon series, Glass Cannon's Blues, I do have a couple stories that are better for this role! For a general intro, "Book Ends" and "Carry On, Teach" are good stories. If you want to know more about Magdalene, who/what she is and how she got there, "Black Maiden" is your next stop.
> 
> (in other words: i need to continue last resorts)

Silence is a comforting thing for somebody like her, who has been used to the noise of the world. Anything that breaks her will immediately make her look up from whatever she’s doing, prompting her to check despite her natural inclination to hide away from potential danger. Well, this could be because she feels safe at the moment, considering she’s in the study.

Still, it’s unusual that the silence in the room gets broken by anything but footsteps, pages turning, pens scratching or some words. In fact, Magdalene doesn’t recognize the sound her Trainer just made, so she needs to investigate. It may be one of those things she doesn’t understand but to who Angela, who always knows about humans’ conditions, frowns at. She can’t know.

She gets up from the copybook in which she was practicing her writing and hovers to the desk where her Trainer has been working for the main part of the afternoon. In fact, he’s been there since they ate lunch.

 _What was this noise?_ She asks through their thoughts.

He lifts his head from his book, surprised, to look into her eyes. The thought was nagging at her earlier, but she can confirm in: he looks… strange, with the dark lines under his eyes and the red tint all over some parts of his face. Once again, she can remember Angela frowning when presented with similar characteristics (she believes Angela called those “symptoms”, but since she hasn’t gotten around to that section of the book yet, she can’t be sure), so this must mean there’s something bad hiding in plain sight.

Cheren looks a little confused by her question.

“What noise?”

_The one I think you just made. It sounded rough._

Come to think of it, describing sounds is difficult. In any case, it seems to bring something to him.

“Oh, you mean, when I coughed?”

_I don’t know this word._

“Was that this noise?”

He puts his hand clutched into a fist in front of his mouth and, as if it’s coming naturally to him, “coughs” again.

_It was!_

However, even after she tells him, he continues coughing, until he’s leaning on his desk and a weird, whistling-like sound exits his mouth. She may not know what it is, but…

 _Are you well?_ She asks, knowing there’s something wrong with this. She doesn’t know everything about humans, but she can sense pain when she’s near it. It’s difficult to ignore when it makes her horn vibrate in some way.

“I may’ve caught something. I’ve been feeling a bit off this morning, come to think of it.”

_Shouldn’t you be resting, then?_

He chuckles, “well, the assignments I need to give back in two days aren’t going to correct themselves, are they?”

_But Angela always tells you to…_

“I know, Angela loves to nag on me for being reckless, but I promise you, it’s nothing bigger than some little cold at worst. If I start feeling like I don’t even know what I’m writing anymore, I’ll go to bed, okay?”

Something still bothers her, but she can’t quite tell what. Maybe she’s even burdening him speaking through their thoughts. Angela did tell her she was loud and that it was worse if he had a headache or felt sick, and he’s definitely being one of the two right about now.

 _Is there anything I can do…?_ She muses a little too loud.

She keeps surprising Cheren today, it’d seem, despite them sharing the study at least twice a week.

“I appreciate the attention, Magdalene, I promise, but I really don’t think you can do anything about it. I’ll be just fine.”

She stares at him in silence.

“…Okay, I know this is usually the last thing I get to say before I go under, but…” She keeps staring, unconvinced. “…you won’t let go until I get a break, is that it?”

She nods. He lowers his head and sighs, but when he looks back up to her, he’s got a little smile on his lips.

“Angela’s influence is rubbing on you, Magdalene, you know that?”

 _I just care about you_ , is all she replies.

“I know, Magdalene, I know.” He chuckles again as he gets up.

However, as soon as he does, he sways a little on his feet, and she rushes to catch him in his fall. He puts his hand on one side of his face, hiding his eye.

“Okay, I… may have overdone it a little on working there, I’ll give you that…” He gets back up onto his feet. “We could both use a little break.”

**Author's Note:**

> FYI: Angela is the Aspertia Trainer School nurse/doctor/general caretaker because Cheren is an overworking moron, and she's my favorite character to write for GCB's component.


End file.
